Memory is a tricky thing. Until we started preparing our coverage of the 25th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, I did not remember that six years after 9/11, I had interviewed my brother about his memories of that day. My brother was an officer with the New York Fire Patrol, a now-defunct, business-funded group that responded to fires in business-heavy areas. He was a firefighter through and through, and a second-generation one at that ( our father was FDNY). My brother took it so seriously that he studied fire science in college. He was also a “rescuer;" it was hard to get somewhere on time with him because if he saw somebody who needed help — lifting groceries, pushing a wheelchair, changing a tire — he just had to stop.
I probably didn’t remember that I had interviewed him because what came next was too painful. Because it turns out that somebody who really needed help was him.
My brother took his own life on May 10, 2010. Rarely a day goes by that I don’t think of him. But just because I thought about him doesn’t mean I could talk about him; for a long time, I couldn’t. Sometimes when the subject of suicide came up, I would want to — or literally have to — leave wherever I was. Not helpful if you’re in the news business.
I’ve come to realize I have to talk about it — we have to talk about it. Suicide is a public health crisis, and that crisis is becoming acute in the Black community. Black suicide rates are climbing, increasing about 50% over the past 10 years. And the suicide rates among black youth are increasing particularly dramatically. In fact, the rate of black youth suicides by firearms exceeded that of white youth in 2022.
So, Thursday night at our NPR headquarters in Washington, D.C., we’re going to have an important conversation about this epidemic with a panel of experts, decision makers and people who have lived with this pain. We’re going to try to find out why this is happening, how this is affecting us, and most importantly, what we can do about it. We’re not going to livestream this, but we will be sharing it across multiple platforms in the days ahead.
Working on this project has helped me find my voice again on this critically important issue. I hope it will help someone else find the words they need, when they need them most. | 
